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When we woke up this morning and reached for our phones to make our presence felt on the internet, little did we expect <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>’s homepage to pay tribute to a man whose birthday we’d forgotten over the birthday of our beloved Prime <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=narendra+modi">Minister Narendra Modi</a> and the homecoming of Ganesha, popularly known as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/GodSaveTheOcean-This-Ganesh-Chaturthi-Mumbai-NGO-makes-idols-that-fish-can-eat/articleshow/48786857.cms">Ganesh Chaturthi</a>. 
 Maqbool Fida Husain, the renowned Indian <keyword id="6448302" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Painter">painter</keyword> would have turned 100 today. 
 
In keeping with his cubist style, Google used Husain’s favourite colours to come up with an abstract geometrical illustration comprising circles and a painted portrait of the late artist holding a brush, at the centre. 
 
The Padma Shri award winner had relocated to London and Dubai after numerous death threats and lawsuits from right-wing Hindu fundamentalists over his depiction of Hindu gods. 
 
At the age of 95, the maestro breathed his last in London on June 29, 2011 where he used to spend his summers while on his self-imposed exile. 
 
The multi-faceted painter was also an accomplished illustrator, photographer and filmmaker. 
 
However, despite his greatness, people of his own country forced him to go on a self-imposed exile and give up Indian citizenship. 
 If that was not enough, a section of people who took to social media to express their astonishment at Google choosing the late artist for its tribute and not <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>., while the rest joined in on the rituals of wishing the famed painter a Happy Birthday. 
 
Soon enough, M. F Husain started trending on Twitter, as well- which brings me to my original point. 
 
Would M.F Husain be the subject of all this fanfare had he not featured on the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-5-best-Google-Doodles-of-all-time/articleshow/47338021.cms">Google Doodle</a> today? Would we have gone about our usual day celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi and wishing the leader of the largest democracy in the world, but forgetting to spare more than a minute for one of the greatest painters India has seen? 
 
Before nodding your head to say ‘No, we would not,’ do bear in mind we are the same country who took offense to his painting depicting Hindu gods, labeled him anti-Hindu, mainly due to his religion, harassed him non-stop and protested against his existence in the country he was born in, while burning his posters. 
 
We failed in giving him the treatment he deserved when he was alive and we would have failed in revering him today too, had it not been for Google reminding us about Husain's unapologetic devotion to beauty, people, and the world. 
 
If that’s not enough, there are also some people who want Google to apologise for featuring Husain on their doodle. 
 
A Happy Bithday indeed.

Google Doodle remembered M.F Hussain’s greatness,
but did we?

Going beyond the reach of standard hashtags, on <keyword id="819905" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Instagram">Instagram</keyword>, with some lateral thinking
 

	The typical basic hashtags used by restaurants are #foodie #foodgasm #citynamefoodclub. Fashion brands use tags like #instafashion #shoes #skirt. An environmental NGOs use tags like #conservation #marine #pollution and so on. Nothing wrong here. These hashtags will bring you the people looking for these specific topics of interest. 
 To go beyond people looking specifically for your offerings, start thinking about other features that may be acceptable to a wider audience. To draw on a brick and mortar example in the real world that is popular the world over, and not yet in India— <keyword id="6371031" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ikea">IKEA</keyword>’s famous coffee shops in their massive stores. Their coffee shops themselves have become a destination for people in the big cities around the world. And while some of these customers come primarily to enjoy the services of this fantastic café, they also stumble across furniture that they may incorporate into their homes. It also keeps their store constantly busy and vibrant. The same applies to your Instagram feed with <keyword id="3269827" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lateral-Hashtagging">Lateral Hashtagging</keyword>. Lateral Hashtagging is literally the hashtags that are not directly connected to your core content, but goes one step outside the box. 

	Taking the examples online, a restaurant that has invested massively on décor, should seriously consider hashtags like #decor, #architecture and #interiors. Perhaps even tag the interior decorator’s firm. While people stumble across the Instagram feed for décor, they can quite possibly be enamored by the food and beverage content as well.
 

	Taking an example events-wise, an art gallery may be of interest to artists, art-lovers, fashion enthusiasts, people looking for ‘what’s happening in town’. So don’t just stick to #painter, #art, #mfhussain, but go beyond that into tags like #fashion, #whatshot and #bangalore, as this event is also relevant to audiences beyond the pure art space. 
 

	An NGO that is focused on conservation should also consider using hashtags ranging from #turtles, #rhinos and #tigers to general tags like #andamanandnicobar, #kaziranga and #sundarbands, even if they are focused solely on just one of these aspects. After all, you will find plenty of overlap of interest in these topics, across species and geographies.
 

	The caution here is to not overdo the lateral hashtagging. A safe thumbrule is to do this once in 5 posts. Or else you could possibly end up with too dilute a following, or worse, a following that marks your page as irrelevant in their head. And that is something that you never want to do.

	 
	 
	(Image credits: reuters)

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Google Doodle remembered M.F Hussain’s greatness, but did we?

Poulomi Das

The Fine Art of Lateral Hashtagging

Jacob Cherian

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